( ᴀᴘ ) 008 / SISTER.

     just  a  kid?     boy  she  wasn’t  making  a  good  impression  either.  if  anything,  that  comment  made  her  furious  .   though  she  lets  it  go.  the  girl  didn’t  look  anywhere  from  here,  and  promised   FOR  A  NEW  CHANGE  and  a  new  her    ;   meaning  easily  getting  frustrated   NEEDED  TO  CHANGE  .  “   it’s….. fine.  ”

Kali could see the anger in the tiny frame before her and closed her eyes. Honestly, the stranger wasn’t much older than she was, and she seemed taller. Well, that was annoying. Kali shrugged a little, able to see she had offended the other girl. “I don’t mean like... a kid. But you are the same age as my SISTER.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” She truly was. Rohini frowned for but a moment and then she perked up: “I could tell you! Uhm, if you’re all right with that, I mean—I know a bunch of ‘em by heart.” The young girl moved back towards where Kali was sat with her food. “I’m good at stories. It’s literally the one thing I’m good at.” Racing not included because it’s apparently unladylike. 

Kali stopped listening to the other girl, choosing instead to just let her ramble and took a huge bite out of her food. But then she was back, sitting in front of her and Kali froze, mouthful of food still exactly where it had been before. There was a frown set firmly on her face when the stranger offered to tell her stories and Kali swallowed what she hadn’t before, staring at Ro. “You... want to tell me S T O R I E S?” Kali asked, as though not sure she had heard correctly. “Are you for real?”

       '   you really are feisty little one , huh ?   '       being criminals of their sort wasn’t exactly a competition … both targeted a variety of people , having a small list of government officials in common .  he pushed for BIG names though, the president on the top of his list , followed by an array of army officials that he had personally know during his time in siberia and leningrad . like their targets , they were all deserving of punishment .  

“What I am is absolutely none of your BUSSINESS,” Kali said aggressively. There was something about this guy that was getting under her skin and god, she hated it. “I’ll only ask once. What are you doing here?”

an illusion, surely but she didn’t mind. it was the first beautiful thing she had seen in quite some time and she was seeing it here, with her sister. a sense of belonging – a re-connection to a girl once separated from her. “a gift?” it was different, she’d never thought of it in such a way. no. thought them to be dangerous - thought them to be bad. papa had intended to raise a warrior, raise a weapon.                         USE TO KILL, FIND THEM. HURT THEM.  

gifts that she had used to kill.    gifts used to kill the ones that had made her this way in the first place.       “

It was true, they were both raised to be weapons, both raised for evil. But for Kali, it was different. She had had a life before being taken whereas Jane? She had been there since birth. She had known no different. Kali? She had a life before this, nine years of it. And she knew that there was no true evil inside either of them.

“Yes, a gift,” she said, nodding at her sister, as though trying to encourage her to agree. “What we have, Jane, is SPECIAL. The bad men want us to hide, but we deserve so much more than that. We shouldn’t have to hide because they are afraid of us.”

Kali lowered her hand, so the butterfly disappeared and looked at her sister properly, giving a faint smile. It was like she was... complete. Now she had her sister, it felt as though nothing could ever go wrong again. “I’ll take care of you now, okay?”

“You’re Indian, aren’t you? C’mon now, don’t tell me you haven’t heard the stories of old? The legends and lore. They’re magical, those stories.” Her family would end her if she spoke of the actual magic she could do. Which was a shame, really. But she’s been threatened with the idea of getting rid of it more times than she could count so she held her tongue.

Her ethnicity being a talking point wasn’t something Kali was a stranger to but nevertheless, it had her rolling her eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure what the other girl meant by stories of old, but it definitely sparked her curiosity. “I didn’t grow up with my parents or anything so no, I haven’t heard the ‘stories of old’. Should I have?”

it’s not every day when their group of misfits bring in another person, but this person practically made axel shit himself and i guess that meant she was cool. but he still wanted to know how kali felt. max was like that. people’s emotions were something he liked to leech onto ( without meaning to, of course ).    so when he knew the majority of them were asleep, he moved to try and see what kali felt after all of this confusion.     “ you doin’ alright ? “ it’s a quiet question, something he knows she doesn’t have to answer, but he also knows someone who knows her past as vividly as kali does might not actually make her fully comfortable. max knew if someone who knew all his history popped up out of nowhere, there’d be problems. // @illusicnsist ♥ sc.

Honestly, Kali wasn’t sure how she felt about Jane coming into her life. It was beyond a relief to know she was alive and well - as well as could be, anyway - but it was overwhelming. Kali had kept her past a closely guarded secret - hell, not even Mick knew much about Kali or where she came from. The group? They only knew so much. What was important. But now it was all turned upside-down and she didn’t know how to feel. The question had her glancing up, shrugging her shoulders at Max on instinct before sighing heavily. “I suppose,” she answered, although she wasn’t even sure what she meant by that. “Jane is alive. I thought I lost her when they took her away. But this is also a nasty reminder of what we’re trying to fight. I love her, I’m relieved she’s safe. But I can’t deny I’m remembering far more of where she and I came from than I want to.”

     “    i  can  tell.     ”     she  responds,    now   with   an   annoyed   tone   with  the  fact  that   she   apologised,    she ‘s   still  getting   a   bad   impression .    her  brother  already  making  her  furious  that  it  made  her  tone   slightly   cross.     “   ––––––   and  some  people  just  have  accidents  sometimes,   “

She regretted snapping almost immediately. This girl looked around Jane’s age and really, she hadn’t done anything wrong. Kali closed her eyes for a moment, as though to calm herself, and looked at the other girl with an eyebrow raised. “No, I... It’s alright,” she said quietly. “Excuse my rudeness. You’re just a kid.”

       ‘   SOMETHING LIKE THAT   ‘       snake sneered , eye glossing over the run down area .   chicago made him SICK  ;  memories of fresco and harold , and their hijinks clotted his head , but the stench rolling in off lake michigan brought him back .         ‘   i’m a little impulsive , and a little curious ——— dangerous combination .  i just like to see my competition    ‘

“You are not a challenge for us,” Kali snapped, completely unintimidated by this stranger. She’d faced worse, she knew that. Her voice showed no fear and she even allowed herself to look somewhat amused by his presence. “If it’s a D E A T H wish you have, then I would be more than happy to oblige.”

                                               IT ALL SOUNDED LIKE EXCUSES.                     jane hadn’t thought school was for      her      either  -  she had basically      failed  out      the first time she tried. but here she was now, doing      decently      well and even looking at going to      college      in the future. the girl rolls her eyes at her practically      adopted      sister, pulling a water from the fridge and closing it’s doors only to lean on them in a      slightly      judgmental fashion. 

                                           THERE’S A LONG DRINK OF WATER BEFORE SHE SPEAKS.                       ❛           you don’t      stick  out      like a      sore  thumb.      that’s just what      you      think.           ❜      at least,      jane      didn’t feel like kali stuck out at all. but it also might have been jane’s      bias      on the whole thing.      ❛           i’m      managing      it, unlike last time. which is the      only      goal. why are you      against      going to school  ?           ❜

Kali shifted uncomfortably as she thought it over. The real reason she was so reluctant to go to school was embarrassing, and it was one she’d never even thought about telling Jane. Although maybe today would have been a good start.

“You and I are very different in some ways, Jane,” she said gently and offering her a warm smile. “You were taken at birth by papa, it was all you knew. I was taken when I was nine. I had already been to school. I was the top of my class, the brightest one there...” Her voice trailed off into something sad, but a moment later, it was gone and Kali was smiling again. 

“I’ve been to school. I used to be really good at it. But I don’t think it’s something I’m going to be able to just go back to. Far too much has happened, and I would be too far behind. But I’m glad things are working out for you there.”

sleep was welcomed immediately, eyes heavy with exhaustion —–long travels, even if in a bus, had taken their toll on her.

the morning comes too early, shadows of dreams fading into nondescriptive unease; nightmares, maybe, cannot quite grasp it.

safety is found in kali’s face as she wakes, warmth that only family brings.   sister. how long have i been looking for home? maybe it’s you. maybe i belong.   she stiffles the thoughts about the origin of their connection, smiles shyly. stretches in bed, blankets still pulled close around her, too comfortable to want to leave yet.

there are no words to describe what she feels when kali is close, when hand touches hand, powers lingering beneath the surface of skin not different to the ones around them, yet so incredibly foreign. wanderers between worlds, a fate that draws them together, thrown onto them by unapologetic terrors in labs designed to study, to incarcerate mind and body and make obedient, yet never strong enough to hold them.

“ hi ”, she manages, yawns, cuddling deeper into the warmth of her bed. “ mh-mh. ” nods, finally wiggles out of blankets, bare feet touching cold, naked cement. “ eggos? ” it’s her only guess, because ‘awesome’ —-that can only mean eggos. ( so ingrained in her mind already that the idea of it being anything else seems almost laughable. )

She only ever wanted Jane to be comfortable, that was the important thing. And she was more than relieved that her sister had slept well, bringing a hand upwards and brushing her hair from her eyes, smiling a little. The request for those frozen waffles had her laughing quietly and nodding. They were one of Kali’s favourite things to snack on and what she had wanted to do was show Jane how nice they were. Clearly, someone had beaten her to it.

“Yeah,” she said gently, offering the younger girl a genuine smile. “Mick got some Eggos from a store and Funshine is heating them up for us right now. We even have cream to put on them so it’ll be a real T R E A T. Do you want to come downstairs?”

“My full name is a bit of a mouthful for most people,” Rohini explained, even though Kali hadn’t asked. Her grin grew wider when Kali introduced herself. “I, for one, happen to believe in magic and the stories of old. I also believe in people. Well, most of ‘em anyway. People like you. Those are the only ones I believe in. And if I can do my part by helping you by giving you something to eat and something to drink, well, why shouldn’t I?” 

A frown appeared on Kali’s face. Ro certainly was talkative and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Kali continued to eat, uncaring of how she looked. It’d been days since her last proper meal, after all. But when the stranger mentioned MAGIC, Kali froze, looking up at her. “Magic? What kind of magic? And what do you mean by people like me?”